Skip to main content

Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Babies

Volume 480: debated on Wednesday 8 October 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many babies were born with sexually transmitted infections in each of the last five years, broken down by disease. (222291)

Information is only currently available in genito-urinary medicine (GUM) clinics on the number of diagnoses made, not the number of patients diagnosed.

The number of diagnoses made in babies born with a sexually transmitted infection in England, by infection for 2003-07 is shown in the following table:

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

Congenital syphilis, aged under 2 years

1

7

14

6

1

Gonococcal ophthalmia neonatorum, aged under 2 months

1

24

90

28

26

Chlamydial ophthalmia neonatorum, aged under 2 months

43

76

37

32

17

1 Cell size of 1 to 4 and totals have been masked to protect deductive disclosure in accordance with Office for National Statistics guidelines.

Notes:

1. The data available from the KC60 statutory returns are for diagnoses made in GUM clinics only. Diagnoses made in other clinical settings, such as general practice, are not recorded in the KC60 dataset.

2. The information provided has been adjusted for missing clinic data.

3. Additional information on infants born with a sexually transmitted infection can be found on the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Service website www.hesonline.nhs.uk.

4. Some of the data from GUM clinics may be from referrals and therefore may also be counted in the HES dataset.

5. Not all infants born with a sexually transmitted infection would have been referred to a GUM clinic.

Source:

Health Protection Agency, KC60 returns

The number of babies born with HIV infection in England for 2003-07, is shown in the following table:

Confirmed mother to baby HIV transmission

2003

26

2004

33

2005

30

2006

23

2007

8

Note:

Additional information on reporting of infants born to HIV-infected women is available at www.nshpc.ucl.ac.uk. Since some infants with perinatally acquired HIV are diagnosed in later childhood, further reports are expected, particularly for 2006 and 2007.

Source:

National Study of HIV in Pregnancy and Childhood, reports to June 2008